Saxophonist David S. Ware is not the kind of man to give up easily. "It's not in my nature. I see life as a challenge. I keep going. That's where success lies, in your ability to be consistent. Just don't stop." A product of the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s, and the New York free jazz loft scene in the '70s, Ware faced some lean times in the 1980s, when jazz, along with America, took a sharp turn to the right. But if the conservatism and growing commercialization of the music meant he had to sometimes drive a cab in order to maintain his vision, he drove that cab and maintained his musical focus. "There were times when we had less work, times when we had a little more. Now we've got more than we've ever had before. And we've got this Columbia thing. It's all part of my dream and it all comes from being consistent and not giving up."

The "Columbia thing" is his new record for the label, "Go See The World." It's not a particularly easy record to approach. But once listeners give themselves over to its emotional dynamism, they can be swept away by its sheer intensity, as shown in his moving and transcendent version of "The Way We Were." Ware himself must get swept away by the very emotions his playing creates. "It brings rise to emotions but I'm not in an emotional space when it's being created. You've got to remember we've been doing this for a very long time and we've cultured our nervous systems to adapt to the ground and the energy involved. We're equipped to deal with it. We're very accustomed to the war, you know what I'm saying? We're trained for it."

Ware has always been encouraged by his friend and former teacher, Sonny Rollins. A more indirect influence came from another legend, the late, multi-instrumentalist, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. "It was through him I was inspired to play the stritch, the manzello (neglected 19th century instruments) and the flute. I saw him a lot in the '60s, but I never had a personal thing going with him like I did with Sonny Rollins. But I was inspired by his music and his presence, even long after he was dead. It wasn't like I was  listeningto him that much, it's not about that, it's just sometimes people from the past come through  their spirit comes through  and in 1987 for some reason or other, I was  feelinghim and thinking about him a lot. His presence was in my life at that time. I don't know why but it was. I had a dream one night that I was playing the stritch and the sound of the instrument was so fulfilling that shortly afterwards I bought the stritch." On March 17, Ware's quartet will be performing an homage to Kirk in St-Denis as part of the  Banlieues BleuesFestival. Will Ware be bringing his stritch along? "Try and stop me..."

 David S. Ware  quartet, Mar 17, 8:30pm,Théâtre Gérard Philipe, 59, bd Jules-Guesde, St-Denis, Metro St-Denis Basilique, tel: 01.48.13.70.00, 95F/75F.

issue: March 99

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